Afghan Innocent Victims Killed By U.S. Soldier

By Associated Press
BALANDI, Afghanistan (AP) – President Hamid Karzai said a U.S. service member killed 16 people – nine  children and three women –  in a shooting spree Sunday that he condemned as “an assassination.”

Karzai demanded an explanation from the United States, adding new tensions to a relationship already severely strained over Americans burning Muslim holy books on a base in Afghanistan.

The burnings sparked violent protests and attacks that left some 30 people dead. Six U.S. service members have been killed in attacks by their Afghan colleagues since the Quran burnings came to light, but the violence has just started to calm down.

“This is an assassination, an intentional killing of innocent civilians and cannot be forgiven,” Karzai said in a statement. He said he has repeatedly demanded the U.S. stop killing Afghan civilians.

Five people were wounded in the pre-dawn attack in Kandahar province, including a 15-year-old boy named Rafiullah who was shot in the leg and spoke to the president over the telephone.

He described how the American soldier entered his house in the middle of the night, woke up his family and began shooting them, according to Karzai’s statement.

NATO officials apologized for the shootings but did not confirm that anyone was killed, referring instead to reports of deaths.

“I wish to convey my profound regrets and dismay at the actions apparently taken by one coalition member in Kandahar province, said a statement from Lt. Gen. Adrian Bradshaw, the deputy commander of NATO forces in Afghanistan.

“One of our soldiers is reported to have killed and injured a number of civilians in villages adjacent to his base. I cannot explain the motivation behind such callous acts, but they were in no way part of authorized ISAF military activity,” he said, using the abbreviation for NATO’s International Security Assistance Force.

An AP photographer saw 15 bodies between the two villages caught up in the shooting. Some of the bodies had been burned, while others were covered with blankets. A young boy partially wrapped in a blanket was in the back of a minibus, dried blood crusted on his face and pooled in his ear. His loose-fitting brown pants were partly burned, revealing a leg charred by fire.

Villagers packed inside the minibus looked on with concern as a woman spoke to reporters. She pulled back a blanket to reveal the body of a smaller child wearing what appeared to be red pajamas. A third dead child lay amid a pile of green blankets in the bed of a truck.  She asked, “Is this child a Taliban?”

President Barack Obama called the killings murders, and called the Afghan President to express his condolences. Obama promised a thorough investigation. But rising resentment from the Afghan people, who are demanding an Afghan trial, has inflamed the situation.

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